Dual Arm Robot

Abstract

A robot assembly for transporting a substrate is presented. The robot assembly having a first arm and a second arm supported by a column, the first arm further having a first limb, the first limb having a first set of revolute joint / line pairs configured to provide translation and rotation of the distalmost link of the first limb in the horizontal plane. The assembly further having a second arm further having a second limb, the second limb comprising a second set of revolute joint / link pairs configured to provide translation and rotation of a distalmost link of the second limb in the horizontal plane. The first limb and second limb further having proximal revolute joints having a common vertical axis of rotation and a proximal inner joint housed in a common housing. The assembly further having an actuator assembly coupled to the first set of revolute joint / link pairs and to the second set of revolute joint / link pairs to effect rotation and translation of the distalmost links of the first limb and the second limb, each of the first limb and the second limb defining, in conjunction with the actuator assembly, at least three degrees of freedom per limb, whereby the distal most links of the first limb and the second limb are independently horizontally translatable for extension and retraction.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 10 / 434,582, filed May 9, 2003 which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to prior U.S. provisional applications Ser. Nos. 60 / 378,983, 60 / 379,095 and 60 / 379,063; all filed May 9, 2002, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Robots are used to perform many tasks in the semiconductor industry, such as the automated handling of substrate media or other objects. In the semiconductor industry, typical media and other objects include individual silicon wafers or wafer carriers, flat panel displays, and hard disk media. Robots may be used for handling media in, for example, wafer processing cluster tools, wafer inspection equipment, metrology equipment, and equipment for hard disk thin film deposition, and in transferring media between production equipment and automated material handling systems in semiconductor factories. Robots ma...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a robot assembly for transporting and manipulating substrates. The assembly has two arms that can move independently in the horizontal plane. It also has a motion assembly that can move the robot arm in the vertical direction. The assembly has a stage that can hold a motor stack and a prismatic joint that connects to the column. The robot arm has flanges at its end that can be translated and rotated. The technical effects of this design are improved precision and flexibility in the movement and positioning of the substrates, making it easier to handle and manipulate them.

Problems solved by technology

This robot, however, cannot be used in a vacuum transport module built per SEMI MESC standards, because the isolation valves of such a vacuum transport module are too narrow to allow passage of the arm that includes the C-type bracket per the SEMI specification that defines wafer transport planes within cassette and process modules.

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